As the school year comes to an end, take a moment and reflect on all the amazing things you accomplished this year. As you reflect, I hope you are thinking on how you and your students have grown, developed, bonded, and had a great time through music.
AOA has had an amazing year and I am proud to have been a part of it! We had stellar turnout for All State Orchestra, held the VERY FIRST Orchestra Music Performance Assessment, and elected rock star officers for 2016-2018.
AOA took a huge step forward this year and held the its first statewide Orchestra Music Performance Assessment (OMPA). The festival was a huge success! We had 14 ensembles from around the state travel to Auburn University on April 22nd and 23rd to perform in front of judges and peers. Full Orchestra, String Orchestra, and Guitar Ensembles from all ends of the state participated coming from as far away as Florence and Mobile. I am so thrilled that so many teachers took advantage of this opportunity to perform away from their home town. It was a joy to listen to each and every one of the orchestras and I am so proud of what our talented directors are accomplishing with their students. You should all be commended for the jobs you are doing and for taking the initiative to bring your students across the state to experience this type of competition. I hope your experience was better than expected! Thank you Dr. Guy Harrison for your leadership in spearheading the planning of and hosting this event. Thank you also Dr. Anne Witt, Dr. Howard Goldstein, Dr. Blake Richardson and Melissa Dufrechou for making yourselves available to judge this event. Thank you Sam Nordlund, Julie Hornstein, Dr. Kathy King, Amy Nice, April MacDonald, and the Auburn University Music Ambassadors for all your help during the Festival. It would not have been a success without you.
Groups receiving a superior rating at the 2016 OMPA were: *BTW Strings Magnet, Montgomery – Chin Mei Li *Dunbar Magnet School Guitar Ensemble, Mobile – Felicia Lett *Tiger Strings Youth Orchestra, Sinfonia Strings, Auburn – Dr. Guy Harrison *Montgomery Music Project – Noemi Oeding Gadsden City High School Titan Orchestra – Keith LaBenne Dunbar Magnet School Orchestra, Mobile – Felicia Lett Tuscaloosa City Schools High School Orchestra – Stephen Finley Fairhope Quartet – Kim Shannon (*denotes straight ones received)
AOA will be holding OMPA again next year. Look for information on the particulars to come out this summer or early fall. We hope to see all groups return and hopefully more groups to take advantage of this opportunity. AOA’s OMPA is open to all Full Orchestras, String Orchestras, and Guitar ensembles. All State Orchestra 2016 was a huge success! The students and conductors did an AMAZING job! I am so proud of all the students and teachers of the students who participated this year. Competition to get in was high this year and it showed because you all were top notch! Thank you to all the parent volunteers and sectional coaches/judges who helped make this All State Orchestra great. We couldn’t have done it without you!
All State Orchestra 2017 will be February 9th through 12th and held at the University of Alabama Music Building. Music excerpts will be posted online on August 15th and auditions will be held the first two weeks of October. The 2017 Festival Orchestra conductor will be Dr. Sandra Dackow. Sandra is an active conductor, arranger, and clinician and is the music director of the Hershey Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania. Sinfonia Orchestra Conductor Dr. Foster Beyers is the Director of Orchestras at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. He was recently appointed Director of Orchestral Activities at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA beginning in the 2016-2017 academic year. Consort String Orchestra Conductor Dr. Christina Yi-Ping Chen-Beyers currently serves as the Orchestra Director of the University Orchestra in Fargo-Moorhead, and was recently invited to lead the European Middle School Honors Orchestra in Berlin which is organized by AMIS (The Association of Music in International Schools). I hope your students will join us again for another amazing year of music!
AOA moved its 2017 composition contest deadline up to June 1, 2016. This competition is open to any composers who have written a piece for full orchestra between January 1, 2014 and the deadline. Submissions for this contest are received from around the world. The winning composition will be performed by the 2017 All State Festival Orchestra at All State in February. The composer will receive $1,500 and travel (from a point within the USA) and lodging expenses to attend the 2017 All State Festival as the Composer in Residence. For more information on this competition and for application forms, please visit www.alabamaorchestra association.org.
I am honored that I was elected to serve as President of AOA and I have enjoyed my two years in this office. It has been a joy to be on the planning side of All State and AMEA, two events in which I greatly benefited from as a high school student attending All State or as a college student and young professional attending the AMEA conferences. Serving in this capacity has given me a huge appreciation for all the people who make these functions happen each year. Thank you all for trusting me to do this job and giving me this opportunity to serve. I am very excited that we will have a stellar group of incoming officers to the AOA board. I know GREAT things are in store for our organization under the direction of these individuals. This is an exciting time in Alabama when Orchestra Education is growing. I am confident that this group of officers will enhance the opportunities for students around the state to participate in string education.
Your AOA Officers for 2016-2018 are: President: Samuel Nordlund President-Elect: Dr. Guy Harrison Secretary: Dr. Daniel Stevens Treasurer: Jacob Frank Immediate Past President: Sarah Schrader Executive Director: Julie Hornstein
UPCOMING DATES:
June 1, 2016: AOA Composition Contest Deadline
June 1, 2016: AMEA Session proposals and Ensemble Performance Applications due
August 15, 2016: All State Orchestra Excerpts posted
February 9-12, 2017: All State Orchestra Festival
